The best place to sell baby items.

Where is the best place to sell baby items? We look at where you can sell your pre-loved baby clothes, toys, equipment, and other items

As your little one becomes not so little, they outgrow a lot of their stuff, fast! You want to get some cashback and you want to know where the best place to sell baby items are.

Buying new things on an ongoing basis for your child can be expensive. So why not recoup some of the money you’ve paid out! In this article, we’ll cover:

• The different baby items you want to sell and what sells and tips on selling them. (Tap here to jump to the section.)
  
• Selling online. (Tap here to jump to the section.)
  
• Offline selling. (Tap here to jump to the section)

We also have tips on selling. As well as each way you can sell baby items. We’ll tell you about our favourite place to sell. Then you can choose the best place to sell your baby items.

Selling baby stuff

Before we look at the best place to sell baby items lets look at the items themselves.

Overall, the condition of items depends on how much you’ll get for them. What you want to sell has an impact too.

If there are lots of an item on the market you won’t be able to sell it for much, if at all. It could just be easier to give it to a charity shop.

Selling baby clothes

Have you ever been to a baby and children’s market before? You may have noticed hundreds if not thousands of baby and children’s clothes. They are two-a-penny, because of this they tend not to sell well – unless they are cheap or sold in a bundle with other similar clothes.

Branded clothes sell much faster. However, baby clothes tend to sell at about ten to twenty per cent of their original value. This is if they are in good condition and don’t have stains or marks on them!

On this basis, for the time it takes to organise and price up clothes you may consider giving them away. Either to a friend, family member or to a local charity.

Selling baby toys, books & DVDs

Quality second-hand baby toys and books sell really easily. This is as long as they are reasonably priced and in good to fair condition.

The only exception to this is second-hand soft toys, which don’t tend to sell well. If you’re selling larger toys online, do take several pictures from different angles so people are more confident in buying.

As ever make sure the toys you want to sell are as clean as possible. If they have parts that are missing or damaged, it may be worth checking on ebay for replacement parts.

Selling baby equipment

When selling baby and children’s equipment it’s important to make sure that’s it’s in clean condition. You may want to give it a good going over with some soapy water and a cloth.

The cleaner they are the easier it will sell. If you have the instructions that is another plus. It could also be possible to print them off from the manufacturers website.

To get the best price, it helps to have all the accessories if the equipment has them. Or if parts are damaged or worn you may be able to find them cheaply on ebay. It may be even worth contacting the company that made the item. If you message enquiring about the cost to replace, they may send you a free replacement part.

When deciding on how much you want to charge you need to consider;

• The condition of the equipment.
• How quickly you want to sell it.

Equipment usually gets the best return when selling second-hand baby and children’s stuff. You can expect to get around 25 to 50% of the original price you paid.

One exception to selling equipment is car seats, it’s highly recommended not to buy car seats second hand. Therefore they can take a bit more work/time to sell.

The best place to sell baby items online

These days many parents want to start selling their children’s stuff online from home, Online selling is great, smartphones have made it so easy. However, you have to be aware that it means that you either;

• Have strangers turning up at your door. Alongside having to arrange a mutually convenient time for them to collect,
• Or wrap it up and cart it down to the post office to send it.

If you have to post it, you may not get as much as you could offline. Selling face to face can be more profitable. With online selling people are aware of the postage cost. It’s best to add this separately to your item price.

There are lots of places to sell online these days. Selling items can be done on social media, online auction sites, selling apps or websites like Gumtree.

Selling baby items on facebook

Facebook marketplace is a great way to sell, simply because it’s free. If you find the right selling group you can sell items very quickly. There are lots of selling groups on the social media site now. A good point about facebook is that you normally sell to local people. As they are local people they will come and pick up the items.

Like all of the ways to sell in this post, selling baby items on facebook has its pros and cons. Read our post about selling pre-loved baby items on facebook.

If you decide to sell on facebook you must follow their policies.

Selling baby items on ebay

Selling through eBay can be one of the most costly ways to sell. You have several listing fees, extra picture fees and final value fees. However, more people will get to see your items and if you’re lucky get more for you’re items. You can get more for your items than you expect if someone gets into a bidding war!

Likewise, though, you could get less than you wanted. Unless you put a reserve price on it, you’re obliged to sell it at that price.

If you have a lot of items you could set the listings up in the app, ready to hit list. Then wait until ebay put up a selling offer. Such as list items for 1 penny weekend. Doing this can save you quite a bit. You still have to think about the other fees though such as extra images and final selling fees.

There is a skill to an extent to listing on eBay. You need to make sure you have the right category and a good description. Otherwise, it may not get found by many people, if anyone at all. People do this and get disappointed as they were expecting to get above the starting price.

It’s also worth keeping in mind what time you list an item. This dictates when it finishes. You don’t want to list something at 2 am. It means it’ll end at 2am when no ones awake.

We’ve found Sunday evenings are the best time to list. More people are in and hopefully, you’ll get a bidding war going to boost the price.

Selling baby items through apps

Selling using apps is a sort of a cross between facebook and eBay! They are easy to use and can be free. Depending on the app you can list your items for free. Where they can be similar to eBay is that you can upgrade your listing. You add more pictures make listings more prominent etc. for a fee.

You’ll usually find that the people buying your items are local and they’ll probably pick up the item. A bonus is that you can also normally pay people or accept money through the app. This can make it safer.

The best place to sell baby items offline

Face-to-face selling is a great way to sell baby and children’s items. You can usually sell them in one hit. It means you can make a lot of space in your house. Within the space of an hour or two, put some money back in your pocket.

Selling items at baby and toddler markets

Selling at markets can be a great way to sell your items. This is because you have a lot of parents in the same place all at once. They are there for one reason, to buy.

If you have a lot of high-quality items; specifically toys, books, and equipment, you can make quite a lot of money. This can be achieved in a short space of time.

Markets tend to only last for a couple of hours. This is because most people come in the first half an hour to try to snap up the bargains. Then closer to the end, there will be hardly anyone there. As a seller, it can become quite boring.

Be prepared to haggle if you decide to sell at markets. As it’s face to face it’s easy for buyers to do. You may want to mark your prices up a bit to allow for this.

Visit the baby market first

If you decide to sell at a market, it may be a good idea to visit that market. If you visit as a buyer first, you can pick up a lot of information. This way you can get an impression of what it’s like. Is it well run and is it well attended.

You could even speak to some of the sellers to see what they think. While you’re there try and have a chat with the organiser too and find out more information.

Having a stall at a Market can cost anything between £10-£20 and what you make is yours. You don’t have to pay a percentage of what you sell.

Depending on how much you sell on the day, markets can be very profitable. They are probably one of the best ways to sell your baby items.

Are car boot sales the best place to sell baby items?

Some people opt to sell their baby stuff at car boot sales. This can be a good way to sell them if you have other, unrelated stuff to sell at the same time. Again though you need to be prepared for hagglers, possibly even more so at car boot sales. Also, most car boot sales are outside so you may get bad weather!

Car boot sales may not be the best place to sell baby items. This is simply because the majority of the people there are not looking for those types of items. You may not sell everything or sell for the price you want.

The best place to sell is….

The truth is…it depends! It depends on what type of person you are. If you’re a quiet type of person, markets probably won’t be your thing. One of the online methods will be best.

If you only have a couple of items then online is definitely the best way to go. If it’s a big item facebook is probably best to avoid high postage costs. Smaller items then ebay would do the job better.

Selling at markets is our favourite way to sell. Especially if you have a lot – it’s quick and gets the job done. You don’t have the hassle of wrapping things up and making several trips to the post office.

What about you? Share your experience with us in the comments below.

While you’re here, we’d like to invite you to Join Babies and Children. It’s free to join as a Baby member and there are benefits to joining. We’re a new website for parents and we plan to add to the benefits as well as adding paid levels of membership for even more benefits in the future.
Find out more here

Another way to put money in your pocket

Saving money effectively puts more money in your pocket. Okay, well it keeps it there. You can save a lot of money by doing a budget. Check out our article about saving money by budgeting here.